INDY LIGHTS: Urrutia scores Watkins Glen pole

Indy Lights championship leader Santiago Urrutia scored a last-minute pole position at Watkins Glen, and it wasn't without a bit of drama. The Uruguayan, who has his own private cheering section in the grandstands behind the pits, came to a halt on track late in the qualifying session and impeded the progress of third-place qualifier Ed Jones.

The Indy Lights race stewards agreed and stripped Urrutia of his fastest lap. The penalty was largely symbolic as his second-fastest lap was still quick enough to hold onto pole. His 1m32.4144s unseated Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate Andre Negrao from pole (-0.0663), and left Jones (-0.2206) fuming in his Carlin Racing entry.

"We were really fast with the first set of tires and were P1, then Jones went two-tenths quicker than me," Urrutia said. "We made some changes on the car and I went back out. I’d done two laps and then on my pushing lap, I spun in Turn 6 and almost hit the wall. The car wouldn’t restart and I thought my qualifying was done, but I reset the car and got going again. My engineer told me I was P7 and that I had to go a second quicker. I pushed on that lap and it was good."

With three rounds left in the 2016 championship starting with today's race (and two next weekend at the season finale in Monterey), Urrutia helped himself by earning an extra point for pole, which moved him to 310 points. That puts Jones 17 points back in second, and Andretti Autosport's Dean Stoneman (-26 points) in need of producing some fireworks to overcome his seventh-place qualifying position. Carlin's Felix Serralles, who sits fourth in the standings (-47 points), is also in a hole after qualifying sixth.

"The point for the championship is huge; who knows if I’ll really need that point once we get to Mazda Raceway," Urrutia added. "The team has done a great job, coming from podium finishes for Andre and I at Mid-Ohio and now we start on the front row here."

UP NEXT: The race, 1: 35 p.m. ET